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Napoleon Bonaparte

Timeline

The Establishment of the French Republic, and The Italian Campaign

Summary

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the Mediterranean island
of Corsica on August 15, 1769. Although the Bonaparte family had
maintained its nobility status even after the French takeover of
the Island from the Italian Republic of Genoa in 1768, it was not
as financially strong as it once was. For that reason, Charles
immediately set out to curry favor with the new French regime.
France rewarded his services graciously, and financed a scholarship
for the young Napoleon to the military college of Brienne in France.
Napoleon left to begin his education there in 1777, at the age
of eight. In 1784, he moved on to the Ecole Militaire (the
French military academy) to spend a year studying more advanced
tactics and strategy. Although remarkably intelligent, Napoleon
graduated 42nd in his class of 52.

In 1785, at the age of 16, Napoleon graduated from the Ecole Miliaire and
became a Second Lieutenant in the Army for artillery, confident
and ambitious. To be commissioned as an officer immediately after
graduation was a high honor. However, Napoleon's happiness was
diminished when his father Charles died on February 24, 1785.

In November of 1875, Napoleon set out for Valence, where
he was to be stationed. It was peacetime, and the post was very
boring. If Napoleon could not win honor in battle, however, he
determined to improve himself otherwise: he spent his time in Valence
furthering his education through a rigorous reading program, with
a particular emphasis on history and geography.

In 1789, Revolution was brewing in France. The traditional monarchy
(the Ancien Regime) was in trouble. Running out
of money, Louis XVI called a meeting of the French Parliament
(the "Estates-General") to consider a tax raise. On June 21, however, the
Estates-General declared itself a National Assembly, and the French
Revolution was underway. On July 14, a Paris mob stormed the Bastille,
and on August 28, the new French Republic issued the Declaration
of Human and Citizen Rights.

Napoleon, on leave from his post during these tumultuous
times, returned to Valence in 1791. In the summer of 1792, he
decided to head to Paris. On April 2 of that year, France declared
war on Austria, and on February 1 it declared war on England.
As revolution swept France, an international coalition formed to
stop the revolutionary forces from extending across Europe. This
coalition included Austria, Britain, Spain, Russia, and the loose
confederation of German states and principalities.

On August 10, 1792, a Paris mob overran the royal family's
residence at the Tuileries, massacring the Swiss Guard that protected the
royalty; Napoleon witnessed it all. This event would have a major
impact on young Napoleon, and taught him how powerful the people
could be, once mobilized. Napoleon would seek to channel that
power in his own conquest of Europe.

Soon after the mob's storming of the Tuileries, the revolutionaries
overthrew the monarchy and guillotined Louis XVI, proclaiming a
French Republic on September 25, 1792.

Commentary

Historians often emphasize Napoleon's Corsican background,
perhaps to explain his egomaniacal attempt to take over the world; Corsica
had fallen to a series of conquering nations for years. However,
the young Napoleon was shipped off to France for schooling quite
early, and his upbringing, philosophy, and mentality were ultimately
much more French than they were Corsican. Every bit a rationalist,
Napoleon was a true child of the French Enlightenment.

Like so many significant historical figures, Napoleon
was largely self-taught. Napoleon's future ambitions were certainly
apparent in his choice of reading: he read history and geography,
obsessing over the stories of kings and generals like Alexander
the Great and Hannibal. Indeed, he would later take these men as
his examples, using their tactics as models for his own: Alexander
the Great of Macedonia built a huge empire, as Napoleon would eventually
do, and Hannibal (of Carthage) was famous for crossing the Alps
with a huge army (another surprise tactic Napoleon would recreate
during his own campaigns). Furthermore, even at this early stage
in his career, Napoleon read everything he could about England.
He was fascinated by England's strategies and spent considerable
time studying England's resources. From his reading at this time,
it seems reasonable to suppose that Napoleon may already have been dreaming
of his future exploits in some form.

Although Napoleon spent hours with his books, Napoleon
did not fail to garner important lessons from the events happening around
him. Part of the reason for the fall of the Ancien Regime was
that it had spent considerable resources supporting the American
colonists' revolution against the British. By the 1780s, the royal coffers
were drained and the monarchy had few resources. Napoleon would
note this, and would stay out of entanglements in the New World
that might have diverted resources from his efforts in Europe.
(For that reason, he would sell the Louisiana Territory to the
U.S.)

What was Napoleon doing during the events of 1789? Actually, he
was at home in Corsica with his family, on leave from the Army.
News of revolution had not yet reached Corsica. However, while
in Corsica, Napoleon wrote a letter on behalf of the entire island
to the French Royalty complaining about French neglect of Corsica.
After this letter, Corsica was considered pro-Revolution.

To the comment above.
Actually - Napoleon did sign an abdication on April 4, 1814, after the Allies ganged up on him and invaded France successfully. In 1815 he was sent to St.Helena after he had escaped from Elba and was defeated at Waterloo.

The article makes a massive and typical blunder in stating Napoleon fought 'the British army' at Waterloo. In fact Wellington's army was made up of various nationalities; British, Dutch, Belgian, various German states. Of the 68,000 strong army of Wellington, just over 24,000 were actually British.